http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth A multimedia hip-hop project about the life of an american expat in China Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:25:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en First of all, the good folks over at Veggie Co Records have finally had a go at my Myspace page, which was long in need of an overhaul. I'm still not going to update it much because I hate Myspace, but at least it looks less boring. I have finished a ... http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/20/a-music-update/ (Those of you who are here for the music, please forgive all this academia. The next post will be about music, I promise!) A friend of mine posted this in the comment section of my previous post, and it got me thinking: Fear is in most situations driven by ignorance, but in ... http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/19/and-another-thing/ This article is something that I think everyone should read. Keep in mind that its author is the same woman who just published the deeply critical Socialism is Great! (the title is meant to be ironic). I especially think this part is worthwhile: Today's schoolchildren [in China] enjoy far more sophisticated sports ... http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/16/addendum/ to most Chinese people? If the traffic on the roads outside my apartment is any indication, very. I'm still planning to conduct some interviews but I'd like a bit more time to improve my Chinese beforehand, so for the time being here's a video quickie about traffic on 8/08/08. http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/14/how-important-are-the-olympics/ This morning, I got up at 8:00 and drove to the hospital. Perhaps I should elaborate. I'm fine; everyone I work with was driven to the hospital today for the mandatory medical inspections that come with our residency visas. I went with three other people in the morning because I had ... http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/11/stamp-collecting/ Yeah, me neither. According to the Chinese TAs who work at my branch of work though, I look like Taiwanese megastar Jay Chou. I asked them how I could resemble a Chinese person, and someone said, "Well, you both speak Chinese..." Of course. Other Miscellanea: I've got an adapter for the camera ... http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/10/see-the-resemblance/ I was going to post a video today about the Olympic opening ceremonies, and what having the Olympics means to Chinese people, but two things got in the way. The first is that I discovered I'm going to need some sort of adapter to plug in and charge my camera ... http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/09/oh-for-christs-sake/ Today I had my first class. I was fairly nervous about it beforehand because I was taking over someone else's class for the week--the original teacher is taking this week off to move--and I was teaching the lowest level class we offer here: preschool. So, essentially, I was told to ... http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/06/teachin-the-kids/ As previously mentioned, I've been having a tough time here so far. Without going too far into why, basically my girlfriend left me (and who can blame her, I moved across the world), and I've been having a really hard time dealing with that without the support system of friends ... http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/04/perspective/ Please forgive the lack of updates. I'm going through some shit. I'll get back on a regular schedule in a couple days, if I can. In the interim, here's a video. http://sun-zoo.com/roadsontheearth/2008/08/03/sorry/